Who Are You? What Do You Do?

The Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski once made a documentary in which he asked the same four questions of 100 different people, filming the responses and editing them together to paint a portrait of a community. I decided to try something similar in a virtual version, starting with some of his questions and adding a few of my own.
Here are some of the answers:

We are a bunch of friends traveling through the world making music, and making new friends everywhere we go. We have drums, bass, guitars, sometimes more....we are mainly something that was created in your own mind to entertain yourself while you wait for the inevitable.

Where are from? (originally/now)

members are born in Western Massachussettes, San Francisco Califonia, Portland Oregon, Zimbabwe, Inglewood California, Bakersfield, California all ending up in the bay area. Our base is now in Oakland.

What do you do?

We combine elements of classic rock, americana, soul, R&B, w/ classic old skool country and attempt to put a modern twist on the whole thing.

Why do you do what you do?

Well its not a simple question but here goes.....if we don't play music all the little children will go deaf from the crap their parents can't let go of. The parents will tell them to do simple tasks, like taking out the trash, or cleaning their room, but the children wont hear them they will only hear a Janis Joplin song pounding in their heads. This will in turn scare the children and they will start taking drugs they don't understand and finally turn to fake music to go with their fake drugs. We can't let this happen people.

What are you working on?

getting to San Francisco by 10am, but most likely by 10:30am....beyond that we are tracking demos for some rich people who want to buy our souls and sell them at a fair price.

What’s next?

We all play music in a million different projects...so we always stay busy. To always know what's next for Fleeting Trance we have a website www.fleetingtrance.com We check it ourselves to find out what we are going to be doing.

When will you be here? With who?

We will be there on Tuesday, March 28th @ Six Rivers Brewery w/ Stereo Chromatic & Koozito @ 8pm

Who's that?

Stereo Chromatic hooked us up with the show they are a local band in Humboldt county, Koozito is Craig Koozer, a member of Fleeting Trance that has a new record out, he is an amazing songwriter. He used to play in a band called SkipLoader and they were signed to Geffen Records, touring w/ the Foo Fighters and many great acts as such.

Anything else you want to add?

yes I like humboldt county a great deal and I'm excited to be playing there again. We've done a bunch of shows in Redway and a few shows in Eureka & Arcata and we have always been treated nice by the locals. so hi and thank you to anyone who knows us : )

Every time I think I'm going to quit writing songs, I think about what has brought meaning to my life. If I scan the entire breadth of what the world has to offer, great songs, for me personally, have done more to capture the complexity of existence than anything else out there. Whether they are trying to communicate depression, love, party time, call-to-action, great songs are phenomenal at transferring a state of mind. So much better than anti-depressants or alcohol or drugs. Are there studies on this? There must be. What better challenge than to help explain and move people with song. Words and music are just a favorite fascinating combination of mine. Like pretzels and orange juice.

What are you working on?

I'm working on some more songs for another CD. It might turn into a couple CD's. When I write, I end up with songs which are all over the map and I really am trying to keep the ones that go together, together. I don't have much luck controlling the style of song which comes out so I just have to take what comes out and put it in the right box. When one my boxes gets filled, I'll be ready to roll. But I have a couple boxes going at once.

What’s next?

The couple of boxes I mentioned above. One's a bit poppier, alternative (but not alt rock) and verbose. One's will be a bit more country, hopefully with a few less words. I'm trying not to write so many darn words.

When will you be here? With who?

These are all solo shows. Me and my acoustic guitar and an electric guitar and a harmonica. I think I see there is a piano at Old Town Coffee and Chocolates so I might do a few numbers on that.

10 Questions for Strix Vega

We are Strix Vega, a local (Arcata) folk/indie/rock band that has been playing together as a trio for about two years. Strix Vega is comprised of Colin Begel (Vocals/Guitars/Lapsteel/Theramin), Brian Godwin (Drums/Bass), and Andy Powell (Bass/Rhodes Piano/Keyboard/Guitar). Andy and Brian played together in a previously existing Arcata band called The Crums with Andrew Edwards, Ben Beaver, and Max Brotman. Colin played a few shows with The Crums, and after the evaporation of The Crums, Colin asked Andy and Brian to form a band with him.

Where are from?

We are all living in Arcata currently. Colin is originally from Vacaville, CA; Brian is from Detroit, MI; and Andy is from Los Angeles, CA.

What do you do?

We write and play music.

Why do you do whatever it is you do?

We all love playing music (especially original material). We won't lie, we also slightly enjoy the ego massage that comes along with being a musician.

Our next gig is during Arts Alive at the Ink People through the Placebo on March 4th. Colin and Andy will be playing as a duo and playing pretty low-key-acoustic-type stuff.

March 10th, Strix Vega will be playing at Brogi's Boiler Room with Children in Heat and possibly a third band.

March 22nd, Strix Vega will be playing again with Franklin Delano (from Italy) at Sacred Grounds.

April 5th, Strix Vega will play with acaramanamaraca (with Abe Ray of The Placebo) at Humboldt Brews.

April 29th, Strix Vega is playing at The Alibi for a benefit concert with The Buffy Swayze.

The last show Strix Vega has planned so far is May 27th in Portland, OR with Bright Red Paper.

Who's that?

Should have read this question before typing that whole paragraph...Children in Heat are a Misfits cover band (Arcata?). Franklin Delano is a band out of Italy. A car a man a maraca (not sure of the spelling...I may have spelled it backwards) is a band started by Abe Ray of The Placebo. The Buffy Swayze is a band based out of Eureka (I believe), and Bright Red Paper is based out of Portland, OR.

10 Questions for Josh Erwin from Packway Handle

Right now [2/28] we're in Hailey, ID. We're playing at the Sun Valley Brewery tomorrow night, and Whiskey Jacques' on Thursday. We spent about a week and a half in CO, another week and a half in MT, then this week in Idaho. Our home for the band is Athens, GA. We left there for this tour on January 31.

What do you do?

We play bluegrass the way we see fit...there's plenty of original compositions we perform at shows, lots of creepy end-of-the-world gospel tunes, some old-time fiddlin', and some bluegrassified ‘80's cover songs by bands like The Cars, Violent Femmes, and David Byrne. [By the way, there's free downloadable MP3s at www.packwayhandle.com...check the "tunes" tab]

Why do you do whatever it is you do?

Right now, we're touring as a band because the time's finally come to quit the day jobs. We've done tours before, but they've never been able to be more than 2-3.5 weeks long. It will be 5 years this spring since we've been playing together, and our sound has been honed during that duration. There’s value in what we're doing and the way that we play music... I believe that because there really is an original way that we portray bluegrass. It’s definitely not done in the way it was done in the 1950s and ‘60s... We're not trying to preserve the original Bill Monroe's style of playing bluegrass. There are so many more ways we've found to use the standard bluegrass instruments [banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and bass] to play the music we like.

What are you working on?

Right now, we're working on a standard of quality and consistency of quality from show to show. That's one of the good things about playing & performing music full time in a band- together- everyday at a new venue. Also, there's some new original tunes that we're writing/composing for the spring.

What’s next?

When we get back home to [be based out of] Athens we're going to begin our 3rd album. This one will be an all original album. There's been some stuff that Michael & I have written that we've been playing for a while, and also some other new stuff that needs to be laid down and recorded.

Are you by any chance on your way to SxSW?

Yes! We're going to crash the streets w/ the acoustic instruments that whole week. We're working on playing the Flagpole suite. The Flagpole Magazine is Athens, GA's town paper. They get a suite every year and host all kinds of bands, and usually have home town bands come through to play. [By the way, why do you ask about that?] (Educated guess: We’re looking at a slew of bands stopping in Humboldt on their way to or from Austin and SxSW.)

9 Questions for a Homesick Hillbilly

A virtual interview with Jaybird from the Slewfoot Stringband who plays this Saturday night at The Alibi with members of the Dirtnap Band, something they call Homesick Hillbilly, and Hillstomp, a kick-ass duo from Oregon.

Who are you?

I'm Jay Swanigan, and here's my brief interview answers.

Where are you now? Where are you from originally? What do you do?

Right now I’m sitting in a living room with good friends and bandmates JJ Cady and Brian Gibson. I live in Eureka with my beautiful and very Pregnant wife Amber. I am originally from Sacramento then decided to move to Eureka 5 years ago to begin a new life dedicated to music, nature, a new family.

Are you really homesick?

About the Homesick Hillbilly: My Grandfather Bud Swanigan moved from the Ozark hills of Missouri in the ‘40s when he met the love of his life, My Grandmother, Vinita. They met in Patterson, Calif. when he was on leave from a South Seas tour. They married and moved to Tracy, where they raised a family and still live. My Grandfather is a nostalgic, Poetic, writer these days (a long retired heavy machinery mechanic) he has recently Published two books through Abraxis and you can find them on Amazon.com (anyway he has been a Picker his entire life even after a industrial accident severed tendons in his left arm, he Plays what he can. I'll send you a CD I have archived recently. He writes about his childhood a lot, hence Homesick Hillbilly. I'm insPired by him and get nervous he will be leaving us soon; he's 83 this June.

What are you working on?

I'm working on a lot of original material with my close friends.

What’s next?

I'm Playing this Saturday with as the Dirt naP Band (three Piece: 6 string, 12 string, and UPright bass) with HillstomP (from Portland).

Who's that?

HillstomP is a two Piece high-energy band. Good friends of mine. We have Played shows here and in Oregon for the last 3 years.

What is a Slewfoot anyway?

I honestly don't know what a slewfoot is. It's the name of an old mountain song.

Thanks for the interview, it's always a Pleasure tyPing on a keyboard with a broken lower case P. you have to hold shift and P to even get an uPPer case!

www.slewfootstringband.com is my active site until my Personal site is uP.